Non-Physician Endoscopy: How Far Can We Go?

BACKGROUND: The delegation of medical tasks to trained nurses is still little discussed in Germany. METHODS: To get a picture of the current extent of non-physician endoscopy worldwide, we performed a systematic literature research. The following databases were used: CINAHL®, Cochrane Library, the German National Library of Medicine (ZB MED), OPAC, DIMDI, PubMed and MEDLINE. The research words were: nurse and practitioners or nurse clinician and diagnosis and organization and administration. Actual journals and references were used to find relevant studies (hand research). RESULTS: Non-physician endoscopy has been well established in some European countries, in the USA and in several other countries in the western world. CONCLUSION: The implementation of such programs should be based on solid scientific consideration and evaluated within the framework of the 'delegation rights'.